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Consortium
Officially the Terrestrial Consortium, also colloquially called the Consortium or the Consortium of Terra is the legal unity entity of the Inner Solar System. It unites Mercury, Venus, Earth, Luna, and their associated entities into a single unitary entity governing all social and economic life. The Consortium is centrally governed from Geneva, Switzerland in a vast multistory complex that spans all the way to Bern. Hundreds of thousands of bureaucrats, statisticians, businessmen, politicians, and the like all shuffle their way through the complex daily to make the Consortium function. The basic foundation on which the Consortium rests is the Charter. History Foundation Period The era of history directly prior to the organization of the Consortium is called the Foundation Period, so called for the events "that laid the foundation" so to speak for the Consortium's existence.The Foundation period lasts from the first human settlement of Mars (256 BSC) to Zero Day. Asteroidal Industries was the premier spacefaring corporation. Created from a merger between SpaceX, Space Adventures, and Copenhagen Orbitals, the company proved to all humanity the wealth of the Belt by hauling back an asteroid filled with iridium, platinum, palladium, carbon, oxygen, and many other precious resources to Earth in late 255 BSC. In early 256 BC, Asteroidal Industries begins issuing mineral bonds to it's investors as a means of expanding the company. It was thought that investors would trade the bonds amongst themselves. Instead, the investors used them as a part of their whole capital and introduced the bonds into the free market. By 200 BSC, the bonds had already out valued gold. Similar space faring companies take note and issue bonds for their own resources, with Mercurian Solar selling bonds for it's power and Venusian Industries issuing cheap bonds for their future resources. In 197 BSC, the mining of Venus officially begins, with Venusian Industries being the first to take the plunge. The push into space faltered because of the Venusian Injuns incident, and for the next century new space colonization is halted. The bonds issued by the companies, however, remain on Earth in high value. By 97 BSC, bulk quantities of minerals began to arrive at Earth, establishing the groundwork for the Intraplanetary Transport Network. In 50 BSC, mineral bonds began to devalue for the first time in history since their issue. As massive quantities of raw material flooded Earth's economy, some investors believed their bonds would become worth less than the equivalent currency price of the material. Many owners began to redeem their bonds for their equivalent in material. Speculation ventures were set up that bought bonds en masse from common people and acted as a middle man to sell the material to Earth companies.This began a rapid inflation of major Earth currencies. Over the next thirty years, the weakening money system began to affect the distribution of resources and increase the class divide across the globe. Many resources began to be rationed and some nations passed austerity measures. At 20 BSC, mineral bonds were a stronger de facto currency than either the United States dollar, Soviet ruble, or the Chinese yuan. They had replaced other currencies in day to day transactions in some areas. A mass panic ensued, and the companies were not able to pay out as the amount of bonds issued outpaced the actual resources available on Earth by several times. Starting in 5 BSC - with traditional economic solutions failing to repair the Earth economy - the first of the Terran Conferences meets in Switzerland and reoccurs Zero Day Accords Main Article: Zero Day Accords At the final Terran Conference, the Zero Day Accords were drafted and signed by the United Nations, the three major world super powers, and each space corporation. The Accords were a set of agreements between these entities, the chief of which were the Articles of Consortium that formed the legal basis for the reorganization and empowerment of the United Nations as the Terrestrial Consortium, the creation of World Congress, and the globalization of energy and other vital industries. Private corporations gained massive power in a single stroke, while reducing the actual power of the national governments of the super powers. The Zero Day Accords reinterpreted the philosophical social contract theory and extended it to corporations and governments; whole entities were treated as individuals. The modern scheme of the three world superpowers received their ultimately final organization with the Zero Day Accords. The Accords began the Second Renaissance and brought to life the most familiar aspects of the Consortium, including the Integrated Production Sphere (IPS) system, the Academies, the Energy Credit system and instituted the Standard Calendar. In SY 3, the Articles of Consortium recieved the first of it's official Amendments and would continue to be amended right up until the collapse of the Consortium over a century later. Repatriation Act In SY 7, World Congress authorizes the "repatriation" of Earth's criminals by funding an official colonization effort of the Main Belt. Each of the three superpowers controversially took this as an opportunity to also expel countless numbers of political prisoners from it's borders. Over twelve million people were transported off of Earth in the biggest colonization effort Sol System had ever seen. By this time, the Consortium itself had become the largest employer on Earth, singlehandedly providing jobs to just over 3% of humans as teachers, engineers, technicians, licensed spacers, medical professionals, and other areas of the sciences. First Trilogy Era The setting of Sol, Invictus, ''Helios''. Twilight Era Government The government of the Consortium is unlike any before organized on Earth. It maintains a benevolent but firm authoritarian grip on the billions within it's grasp. It integrates elements of representative republicanism, social democracy, communism, and corporate oligarchy to create a smooth and functional system. World Congress World Congress is composed of the members of the United States' House of Representatives and Senate and the Politburos of the Soviet Union and the People's Republic. The Second Constitutional Convention of the United States of America was held in tandem with similar conventions in the Soviet Union and the People's Republic. The noveau-conservative New Federalist Party pushed for a strong central government with almost unlimited control for the regulation of commerce, but leaving most civil and social decisions in the hands of popular and state referendum. They also successfully changed the title of the nation to "The United States", signifying the globally inclusive (aka non-Amerocentric) of the reorganized nation. The New Federalist Papers, a publication of the party, was also instrumental in the creation of the fourth Economic Branch of the federal government, which organizes the United States economy through a complex interplay of free market principles, careful technical bureaucracy, and associations of trade unions. Since their origin in the SCC, they have advocated for a strict interpretation of the new Constitution. The minority opposition party in the United States is the Social Democrat Party. They favor a cultural distance from the other superpowers while strengthening economic ties. An internal faction known as the Radical Social Democrats favor the abolition of the US and a political merger with the SU and PRC. They are the direct descendants of the Democratic-Republican, and later Democratic, Parties of the former United States of America. Their great contribution was the abolition of state borders. Notable Components The International Broadcasting Corporation is the Consortium entity responsible for the regulation and maintenance of global media on Earth through the radio, television, and internet mediums. They are a subsidary of the larger Consortium Broadcast Corporation which serves all of Inner Sol. Category:First Trilogy Category:Factions